Thousands of government supporters marched this Sunday in the Honduran capital in support of President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was designated as drug trafficker in a trial against his younger brother, sentenced on Friday in a New York Court.
More than 7,000 supporters of the official National Party (PN, right), according to estimates by journalists, were transported by bus to the capital from several areas of the country and marched waving blue flags along the Suyapa boulevard.
We are ready to continue working for the good of Honduras,”
said the president in a speech, in rejection of opposition leaders who signed an alliance on Saturday to demand “permanent mobilizations” to press for the exit of the president and the “narctadorship.”
Hernández also received the support of the military high command on Saturday during a parade to exhibit weapons on Armed Forces Day, as well as the Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Colleen Hoey, who accompanied him on a stage.
In his speech during the march on Sunday, the president made no mention of the decision of the Court of the Southern District of New York to convict his younger brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, for drug trafficking.
Twelve jurors were at the trial in which former drug lords testified and claimed to have worked with “Tony Hernández” in connection with Colombian and Mexican cartels for more than ten years, with the support of the military and police.
The former drug lords that collaborate with the prosecution to reduce their sentences assured that Juan Orlando Hernández received money from the cartels, including Mexican Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán, sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States.
The jurors found Hernández guilty of the four charges: Cocaine trafficking, false testimony and possession of firearms, said the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office.
President Hernández criticized the ruling “based on testimonies of murderers” and rejected prosecutors’ allegations that Honduras became a narc-state.